Staying in Vietnam
On the enemy’s side
by Luca Pollini
preface by Brock Ruggles
American soldier Marlin McDade is the one of those who chose to stay on the enemy’s side after spending years giving his service on Vietnam’s battlefront. He was born in Kansas and raised in a catholic household with strong military traditions (both his father and grandfather were decorated war heroes), he set off in his early twenties fairly convinced in what he was doing. Then the reality: pointless training; living in fear all day long; loosing friends; cruel actions; temporarily going back home where he thought he was going to be welcomed as a hero but instead was insulted and called a murderer. Marlin left again towards the battlefront where he was injured and where he started having his first doubts about his actions. During his stay in Saigon, a city which desperately tried to cover the horrors of the war, what had started as a friendship with a Northern-Vietnamese nurse became love. Once he received the call to go home after the troops pulled back, his answer was: ‘No, I want to stay here’. Marlin’s story has been told by the author after a long interview which took place in a bar in Da Nang during the summer of 2016.
Luca Pollini, a sea-loving milanese, grew up and was trained in the middle of the Seventies. He combines the activity of a journalist with that of a writer and author. He has written everywhere – even on the walls – published numerous essays on contemporary history, written dramaturgies and theatrical readings. He collaborates with monthly and daily newspapers, and edits the website retrovisore.net. He believes in rock and regrets the Parco Lambro (intended as a Festival).